Not your third grade paper mache

Rum and Paper Mache

I really want to profile one of my favorite paper mache projects. It is also the most controversial. Why? Because it involves Rum. And puppets. Did you know that there are a bijillion people out there with a crippling fear of puppets? Yes, there is. I have met half of them. The condition is called Automatonophobia. It seems like they were the first to see my “Rum and Paper Mache” video featuring a cute couple (well, not cute to automatonophobiacs) and a dragon who arrives one evening with some Rum. Aside from the puppet part of the video, the Rum also caused a ruckus. Some saw the video as promoting drinking. I agree, but only among puppets! Here’s my defense. This wasn’t my idea. I heard a piece of music from a group, Alpha, that I really liked. It was really catchy and had a nice beat. It was the kind of music that make your toes tap (whether you want to or not). I’d been wanting to make another music oriented marionette video. (My first was called “Paper Mache Dragon Marionette.” More about that at the bottom of the page.) And this music just fit the bill. It happened to be called “Rum”. Hence the rum in video. In other words, it was Alpha’s fault that there is drinking in this video. Anyway, this project was one of my favorites. It involved making three puppets and scrounging and buying clothes, furniture and making the set. And it took six months to make.

They started like this….with lots of crumpling.

After the paper mache, the three characters looked like this.

After sculpting with the paper mache pieces they got their “skin” of cloth mache.

And after the paint.

If you’d like to see more about the making of the dragon, see the posts on my blog.

And if you want to see the video, then just click on the photo above.

By the way, I handled all of the controls in the making of this video. I had a crazy contraption for that. But I loved it. Here is what it looked like from above.

I mentioned that this project followed an earlier video I made called “Paper Mache Dragon Marionette.” If you’d like to see that video, just click on the photo below.

Paper Mache Dragon Marionette

And….I bought the rights to another piece of music. I’ve got some plans for that! Sorry all of you automatonophobiacs!